The Zimbabwean Gardener Issue 19 Summer 2016/17 | Page 26

The summer garden
the sustainable
summer garden
By Lindsay Charters
Summer is here and we‘ve all got our fingers crossed
that the rains will be plentiful, gentle and long-lasting this season.
I’m sure most of you will be hanging up
the garden trowel over the holidays and
letting things look after themselves for a
while. Here is a checklist of things to do
to make sure that your garden is still in
good shape after New Year.
POTS AND HANGING BASKETS, ANNUALS
AND BULBS
• Feed them with a generous dose of
organic fertiliser and compost to keep
them healthy. Add a layer of ash from a
wood fire for an extra dose of potassium
and to correct any acidity in your soil.
• Plant a second round of summer
annuals in early January to carry you
into winter with a swathe of colour.
Remember to keep pinching back and
removing dead flower heads off existing
annuals.
• Control Downy mildew on Busy
lizzies by using the commercial organic
insecticide, Kobe, or with a homemade
spray made with two tablespoons of
bicarbonate of soda in one litre of water.
A water wise bed with Gazania splendens and blue felicia
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• Support your summer bulbs like
coloured Arum lilies, Nerines, Oriental
lilies and Tigridia with generous doses of
organic fertiliser, worm tea and compost.
The more you feed them now, the better
they’ll flower next season. Prevent bulb
rot by maintaining good drainage by
adding gravel to the bottom of your pots
and use an 80:20 mixture of potting mix
and river sand as planting medium. When
the bulbs finish flowering, remove the
dead flower heads but allow the leaves
to remain on the plant until they are
completely yellow and shrivelled – the